DEAR USSR is not a letter to Russia - they are acronyms - DEAR meaning Drop Everything And Read and USSR meaning Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading - are just two of many acronyms for silent reading programs: FUR, FVR, SSR, SQUIRT, and WART to name a few more. Regardless of the name, the message and the research is clear. Reading improves comprehension.
Dr. Stephen Krashen, a linguistic educational researcher, has argued for years the benefits of FVR, by compiling numerous research studies in his books The Power of Reading. FVR is the most effective tool for increasing literacy. It is the act of reading itself that is the key to linguistic development.
Krashen recently wrote an article for School Library Journal, Free Reading, which summarizes the benefits of USSR.
An article which complements Krashen's is this one written in Education World Silent Sustained Reading Helps Develop Independent Readers and Writers .
Check them out and get back into USSR!
As the article states:
If the teacher models, the students will follow!
A few years ago Educational Leadership devoted a whole issue to Literacy. Two articles I remember specifically:
Becoming an Engaged Reader presents information related to reading comprehension. The article emphasizes learning to comprehend as an ongoing process, as the individual reader encounters different texts, in different ways, for different purposes. Effective readers think within the text. They pick up the basic information to understand what the text is about. Both fiction and nonfiction reading require literal comprehension.
Strategies for Teen Readers presents information related to reading comprehension in teenagers. The article defines reading as a complex, purposeful, social, and cognitive process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning.
Both of these articles can be found in the Ebsco Professional Development Collection database to which we have access. The username and login can be found in the staff conference, along with navigation instructions.
Here is the complete bibliographic info:
Coutant, Carolyn, and Natalia Perchemlides "Strategies for Teen Readers." Educational Leadership 63.2 (2005): 42-47. Professional Development Collection. EBSCO. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.
Scharer, Patricia L., et al. "Becoming an Engaged Reader." Educational Leadership 63.2 (2005): 24-29. Professional Development Collection. EBSCO. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.
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